Vera Zvonareva @ Tennisrulz!! Latest news

Vera Zvonareva was born in 7th of
September 1984 in Moscow, Russia. Hopefully, Vera does not have such a
complicated life as, say, Jelena Dokic, so she spends her time enjoying her
young days. Vera likes the colour blue, yellow roses, and strawberries. Her
favourite author Mikhail Bulgakov, who wrote âMaster and Margaritaâ. Vera
likes to spend her free time reading and listening to music. She hates
people without a sense of humor and those who donât tell the truthâ¦ It is
amusing that Veraâs most memorable experience was losing to Nadia Petrova
6-0 6-0 at the age of 8.

Veraâs parents are both former sportsmen, mother
Natalia Bykova being an Olympic Bronze Medallist for grass hockey, and
father Igor Bykov being an average-success ice hockey player. Perhaps this
is the reason that aside from tennis Vera is interested in hockey.
Volleyball is also something she likes. Zvonareva seems to be a patriot, as
she says that she wants Russian players to progress as far as they can, and
also because she chose to play with the Russian Fed Cup team. To add to her
character, Vera acknowledges her mistakes and never underestimates her
opponents. It is very hard to say if sheâs a positive person or not, because
she said that the match in the 2002 Roland Garros against Serena Williams
remains a pleasant memory, even though she lost it, but her most memorable
experience was a defeat by Petrova ten years ago. Zvonarevaâs tennis hero is
Yevgeny Kafelnikov, whose game is an example to follow for Vera. Her tennis
ambition is to be in the top ten, which, hopefully, is not far away.

Vera was introduced to tennis at the age of six,
when her mother asked her if Vera wanted to play tennis with a group of
other children. Vera liked the sport and continued playing it in a tennis
club called âChaikaâ. Her group consisted of about 15 girls and boys,
including Elena Bovina, with whom Zvonareva attended the same tennis
academy. Now, Vera does not have a permanent tennis club, but when in Moscow
she likes to train in âSpartakâ club.

Zvonareva is a good, but conservative baseliner.
She tries to hit simple but effective shots, and that had brought her a long
way already. Now, with the help of her coach Kashevarova Vera hopes to adopt
a more aggressive style of play, by improving her fluctuating serve and
volleys. If achieved and added to her strong backhand return, this will make
Zvonareva a true challenge to the titans of the game, the Williams sisters.
But for now, Vera plans to cement her current position and not to drop in
the rankings.

Career review:

Zvonarevaâs tennis career started, when
in 1999 she played her first ITF tournament in Tbilisi. Unfortunately, as a
qualifier, she lost to World No.133 Tatiana Poutcheck. Yet, in 2000, in her
second ITF tournament Vera had some impressive results: victory in Moscow,
as an unranked player, without a single set loss in five matches. In
addition, her first 8 professional wins (ITF) were in straight sets- a
dazzling performance. It was only in the first round of Kremlin Cup (Veraâs
WTA debut) that she had her first 3-set win, defeating world No.148 Elena
Bovina. But, her luck extended only that much, as Zvonareva lost to No.11
Kournikova in the next round.

The year 2001 was less of the success in
comparison with the previous years. Zvonareva could not qualify in Moscow
and Miami. She competed only in seven ITF events, reaching a semifinal once
and quarterfinals four times, though.

The year 2002 was the golden year for the
Russian. As a 17 year-old, Vera was able to upset three seeds to win an ITF
event in Naples, USA, also being a finalist in doubles. In Bol, as a
qualifier she defeated the No.8 seed Srebotnik to reach the first semi-final
of her career in WTA. Due to success in Bol Zvonarevaâs world ranking jumped
40 places to No.177. That week, not even being a top-200 player she
possessed wins over top-50 competitors! Next week the young player was even
more successful advancing to her first-ever semifinal, in Warsaw, and
reaching the No.144 position in the world. Roland Garros was a great success
as well, as Vera played her first French Open reaching the fourth round. It
was amazing to see a 17 year-old Russian teenager at these heights.
Eventually, Serena Williams stopped Zvonareva, but took her three long sets
to do it. While rankings rose to 90th on the planet, the number
of victories over seeded players also increased fast.

In Wimbledon luck followed Vera only to the
second round, but in the following tournament in Palermo Zvonareva made her
first final appearance. In a three-hour marathon Vera gave way to the 6th
seeded Diaz-Oliva. Later, in Sopot, the rising star reached her third semi
of the year (and career), upsetting a more experienced and higher-ranked
Matevzic in just one hour. In her US Open debut, Vera Zvonareva managed to
reach the third round, cracking the top-50 at the 49th spot. In
the hometown Tournament in Moscow Vera held three match points on compatriot
Elena Bovina before losing.

The start of the 2003 season was relatively
good. Vera reached 2 quarterfinals in a row, falling to Cho in Auckland and
to Molik in Hobart. Yet, the Australian Open was the worst of her Grand Slam
debuts, as she never made it past the first round as a result of a defeat by
Bovina. Then followed a series of first and second round defeats, until
Scottsdale, where she posed wins over Poutchek, Majoli, No.23 Shaughnessy,
before falling to No.2 seed and former No.1 Capriati. Miami was a complete
failure, thanks to the first-round loss to Chladkova. In April, in
Charleston Zvonareva reached the fourth QF of the year, eventually being
defeated by the former No.1 Lindsay Davenport. Good performance in
Charleston pushed Vera inside the Top-30 for the first time. In Amelia
Island Vera was able to proceed only to round 2 though. Nevertheless, in Bol
Zvonareva caught her first WTA-tour crown by defeating Martinez-Granados 6-1
6-3.

The fifth QF of the season came with defeats of
Casanova, No.10 Myskina and No.15 Danilidou. Veraâs win over Myskina was her
first over a top-10 player. In Strasbourg Vera, as a No.6 seed, reached the
semi-final. In the Roland Garros Vera joined the few people who had defeated
Venus Williams this season (her first win over a top-5 player), to reach her
first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Russians Vera Zvonareva and Nadia Petrova
became the 3rd and 4th Russian women in the Open Era
to reach a Grand Slam QF, after Olga Morosova (1972/74/75) and Lina
Krasnoroutskaya (2001). Following Roland Garros Vera broke into the Top-20.
In Wimbledon she reached the 4th round (best performance there),
to become one of five Russians in the 4th round (Russian Grand
Slam record).

Vera Zvonareva is currently holding her
career-high 15 position in the world rankings. To occupy this âhighâ spot
Vera displaced her countrywoman Elena Dementieva.